Husted fires election officials for votes that defied his directive

Tuesday

Aug 28, 2012 at 12:01 AMAug 28, 2012 at 8:19 PM

Secretary of State Jon Husted today fired a pair of Democrats from the Montgomery County Board of Elections for their votes to defy his directive on in-person early voting. Dennis Lieberman and Thomas Ritchie Sr. had 27 years combined experience on the board, but they ran afoul of Husted more than a week ago when they voted for weekend early voting hours and then refused Husted's order to go back into session and rescind the motion.

Jim Siegel, The Columbus Dispatch

Secretary of State Jon Husted today fired a pair of Democrats from the Montgomery County Board of Elections for their votes to defy his directive on in-person early voting.

Dennis Lieberman and Thomas Ritchie Sr. had 27 years combined experience on the board, but they ran afoul of Husted more than a week ago when they voted for weekend early voting hours and then refused Husted’s order to go back into session and rescind the motion.

Husted issued a directive in mid-August standardizing early voting hours across all 88 Ohio counties. It said voting could occur only on weekdays.

“You knowingly and willfully violated Ohio election law by not following Directive 2012-35, which Ohio law requires you to follow. Thus, you are immediately dismissed from the Montgomery County Board of Elections,” Husted wrote in a letter to the men.

Husted’s decision came one day after an administrative hearing officer recommended that Lieberman and Ritchie be terminated.

The Dayton-area Democrats argued that Husted’s order did not specifically mention weekend hours so it was open to interpretation. But Jon Allison, an attorney and former chief of staff for Republican Gov. Bob Taft who was appointed to oversee the administrative hearing, said no reasonable person could conclude that the directive permits weekend hours.

Democrats have sharply criticized Husted’s directive because it does not include weekend hours that were available in 2008.

“We do not want to return to the long lines, the hours upon hours of waiting that took place in 2004 when J. Kenneth Blackwell was in Secretary Husted’s job,” Lieberman said in a statement Monday, after Allison’s ruling. “Secretary Husted needs to follow Jennifer Brunner’s model in 2008 that led to a historic voter turnout and abandon Blackwell’s 2004 model that was a disaster and made Ohio a poster child for voter suppression.”

Democrats point to a study by Northeast Ohio Voter Advocates saying that more than 200,000 Ohioans cast ballots in 2008 during early-voting hours that do not exist this year.

Republicans counter that there are still plenty of opportunities to vote early, and for the first time, all voters will be mailed absentee-ballot applications. They also note that increased early voting did very little or nothing to boost total voter turnout from 2004 to 2008.

The Montgomery County Democratic Party’s executive committee now has 15 days to decide whether to contest the firings in the Ohio Supreme Court or submit replacement members. Mark Owens, county Democratic chairman, said the party is likely to name replacement members right away, considering the election is 10 weeks away, but then look into legal options in the Supreme Court or federal court.

“(Husted) is getting rid of two people with 27 years experience for basically expressing an opinion,” Owens said. “They didn’t violate anything. Nobody has voted early outside his directive. I think he’s being petty and, frankly, he’s putting at risk a fair election because he’s taking people with 27 years experience off the board.”

If they submit replacements, the secretary of state has to accept them, based on a 2008 Ohio Supreme Court decision involving former Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.

No other county elections board has voted to defy Husted’s directive, although the Medina County board voted to send Husted a letter asking him to reconsider allowing weekend hours. Husted has said the hours will not change.

Husted also faces two federal lawsuits: One challenges his weekend-voting directive, and the other aims to overturn a GOP-crafted law that eliminated early voting on the three days before Election Day.

jsiegel@dispatch.com

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